Midway has posed: During the previous battle, when provoked, the Abyssal princess Midway launched an air strike while others fended off the crazed Raider Demon. And during this airstrike, a number of Abyssal fighters were tagged with tracking devices courtesy of Orchid's aerial combat drones.

This has paid off. For the first time since initially tagging, the signal has surfaced. Far from any shore, in the middle of the sea. The perfect time to exact revenge on the Princess of Progress for what she has done.

The skies are cloudy, a dull gray that threatens rain but has not gone through with it yet. This colors the sea an unpleasant gray, with waves cresting briefly at their peaks with white foam.

And in the middle of it, a pale figure in a white dress, skating lazily across the ocean's surface. A handful of Abyssal destroyers-- fishlike black-hulled beasts-- leap out of the water at random intervals around her like dolphins riding the bow wake of a cruise liner. The tracker location is unmistakable-- This must be Midway herself, in the middle of this formation of escorts.

Shigure has posed: Yamashiro coasts along, eyes closed as she looks through the 'eyes' of her scout plane. The little craft banks over, redirecting towards the coordinates provided by Orchid. The scout dips a bit lower, under the cloud layer and zooms in on the flotilla. "Found you. Confirming, one Princess-class with multiple escorts." She opens her eyes, sending th recall signal to her scout while leaning over to adjust course. "We don't have the Admiral with us this time, but I believe we can put an end to this threat before it begins." says the battleship, clenching a fist closed as her red eyes lock onto the far-distant figure over the horizon.

Shigure and the others are also in formation with the battleship, providing escort and screening for their heavy hitter. "There's like, so many targets to choose from~." chirps the blonde Yuudachi, a malicious grin on her lips.

Reina Kinney has posed:While she wasn't present at the original battle, partially due to performing Naval training exercises, Reina Kinney is nonetheless intent on assisting in the 'act of revenge' (as she's calling it) today. The Neo Osprey has been fully stocked and loaded with weapons and is fully fueled up, ready for battle. Numerous GUARDIANS recruits are manning the decks and the systems, while Reina herself sits in her commanding officer's chair. It may be comfortable looking, but that's only for the purpose of convenience of having to sit for long periods of time. In reality, there's a stern and somewhat impatient look on the red-head's face as she clenches a gloved fist.

"All systems are online, ma'am," The recruit who's acting as First Officer says to Reina, who looks up a little and nods before looking forwards again.

"Aye-aye ma'am!" The rest of the crew responds in unison as the Neo Osprey begins cruising forward at a steady speed thanks to coordinates received via radio communication.

For a moment there is nothing until one of the recruits calls out, "Weather report indicates clouds with a possibility of rain." There is a slight hint of uneasiness in his voice.

"Then we'll just have to deal with it!" Reina calls out. "We've got far worse to worry about than a little rain! Besides, we're all inside, so it's not like you're gonna get wet!"

Just then there's a beeping on the radar. "We've got a confirmed sighting at twelve o'clock!"

With that, the red-head stands up and calls out to the navigational operative, "Full speed ahead!"

Haguro has posed: It has been a fair while since Haguro's last actual mission alongside the fleet from Hikari seaport. She's had plenty of training on the battlefield with solid groundd, but coming back to the sea still feels... Familiar. Comforting? Not so much, but the familiarity adds a certain level of confidence to her movements as she skates along the water's surface.

<<"Haguro here. Hikari Fleet, I'm on my way.">> As she reports in, her turrets whirr lightly as she adjusts her armaments. She's got all of her guns in working order, her shells are tuned for optimal explosions, and there's already intel on where the target is. She takes aim, but she doesn't fire yet. Not everyone is in position yet, and there's still the chance of...

Something. She's not sure what, exactly, but there's that nagging feeling that firing early wouldn't be the best course of action. Not until the rest of the crew is around, at the very least. <<"Do we know why she's here? Does she know we're here?">>

Leyanne Mace has posed:Bouncing alongside Shigure and the others, Leyanne pilots Leeroy from the flying bridge on top of Leeroy's wheelhouse. She settles her flak jacket in place. "All weapons, report in!"

The various stations bristling the PT boat report in; four torpedies, three pairs of 20mm cannons, two pairs of 50-cals, two exocets, and a bofors gun. A lot of firepower on such a small (and light) boat. As the others accellerate to full speed, Leyanne eases the throttles forward to keep pace, Leeroy's (slightly) armoured prow lifts from the water.

"FMS Leeroy Jenkins, we await the go order." Leyanne reports calmly, her voice betraying just the barest hint of excitement, her hands resting on the throttles as she gets ready to bash her knuckles against the firewall.

Orchid (6384) has posed: Once again Orchid is helping the Hikari Defense Alliance. And once again she is doing so with her tracking devices. She's hitched a ride on Leyanne's Leeroy, and is sitting at a signals station, listening to her tracking beacons in the distance.

<<"Good tone, good signal,">> she reports. <<"Not yet, and I wouldn't rule it out,">> she replies to Haguro's question. <<"This could be a trap, but we've got good numbers to turn a trap around.">>

She's been able to rebuild her drones since the last time she crossed paths with the Abyssal fleet, and they are out in force; a shoal of sonar-equipped fish-bots, coordinated and relayed by a network of miniature V-22 aircraft. Orchid knows that the Abyssals like to travel underwater, so is keeping an eye under the sea.

Android 17 (6730) has posed: Seventeen got warning about the Princess being out.

Of course, this did not sit right with him. Sure, Orchid tracked her...but to him The Princess seemed like someone who was meticulious...and such things would have been found. Which means...either she knows she is being tracked...or she is COUNTING on that she is being tracked. It would be the smart thing to just sit back and do nothing, waiting for a fleet he did not much care for to bait the trap she was setting.

However in the air the Android would appear, flying to the set up and deciding to get involved. Maybe it was a trap, but it wouldn't sit right with him to let others get hurt, just because he was sour at someone. More than that, it would be basically make him a hypocrite. Of course, in the end...he did have the desire to see this 'Princess' pay for what they did. Seventeen had some shit to work out.

"Aren't you being a little too casual?" he asks Midway, arms crossed as he starts to lower.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:In the back of Kotone's mind she had to wonder was this a setup? There was no way to know, and even if it was they'd have to spring it, right? So she was fairly heavily armoured and armed today, clad in heavy carapace body armour, and carrying a rail rifle meant for something far larger than her, yet she had no trouble carrying it. She would be acting as additional fire support for Leyanne and thus the Leroy and hopefully, she could even give some E-warfare support if it ends up being needed in this fight, given Midway's constant meddling with her minions? It was very likely that they could be getting upgrades for more modern hardware and she didn't want to discount such.

Nova Terra (6381) has posed: The clouds some distance away from the center of the forming battlefield part as... Something comes down from above, a barely visible shimmer in the air. It doesn't stay for long though, just enough time to deploy three objects before rising up again, once more displacing the clouds on its way.

The three deployed objects are quickly closing in on the dark Princess and those arraying to engage her. One skims along the surface of the water, while the other two are flying along in the air above. Soon they are close enough to make out their details. The two in the air look like fighter craft. Wings, large engines, cockpit. Yeah, they qualify. The one on the surface is more bike-shaped, though more heavily armoured and forgoing wheels in favour of hovering along, two large rockets on the rear propelling it forward. It's rider lowers her visor over her eyes and zooms ahead to focus in on Midway... And raises an eyebrow. Man these types get weird.

Nova radios to the allied forces, "Thought I'd join the party if that's alright with the rest of you. I brought air cover!"

Midway has posed: Appearing overhead so suddenly draws Midway to a halt. Her various escorts cease as well, bobbing their heads out of the water and extending cannons from their mouths. All of this fixates on Seventeen when he descends to address her directly like that. She doesn't respond immediately, however, simply staring at the android with those wide, crimson eyes of hers.

Her posture shifts, her gaze sliding sidelong as she turns to observe the Neo Osprey in the distance, the Leeroy closing. That hoverbike and the fighter craft that arrived with it. The Fifth squadron also closing in. Scarlet eyes narrow slightly before she returns her attention to Seventeen. A hand raises, finger and thumb pressed together. With a dismissive gesture, she snaps her fingers.

The destroyers around her open fire. Apparently she doesn't consider Seventeen even worth speaking to, let alone using her own weapons. Though the logic tracks-- If her goal is to escape, plowing through the single fighter is likely the easier path than turning around and dealing with the fleet quickly growing in her wake.

Reina Kinney has posed:As the other allies approach, Reina gives a tiny bit of a smirk as she sees that she's gotten some backup from the others. They may not be in the same faction as her, but at least she won't be doing this alone. The fact that there's air support makes things even better in her opinion. "The more types of support you have, the better off you are." But her smirk disappears as she realizes that the Neo Osprey is reaching the range of the destroyers.

And then, the destroyers suddenly open fire, and Reina's eyes widen like saucers, her lips parting a little to grit her teeth as she clenches her fists. "The hostiles have been spotted, ma'am," The navigational operative says.

"I ALREADY KNOW THAT!" Reina yells as she stands up, stomping her boot-clad foot on the floor as she turns to face the navigational operative as if he was being so naive that he shouldn't even be on this boat. After a moment, though, Reina realizes she's getting too overworked, and remembers that having control within a dangerous situation is very important.

"Weapons free!" Reina says firmly as she sits back down in her chair. "Fire upon the destroyers only! DO NOT ENGAGE THE MAIN TARGET!"

"Roger that, ma'am," The weapons operative says as he fires a few cannons at the destroyers, ignoring the main threat as instructed.

Haguro has posed: Spotting 17 trying to speak with Midway, Haguro takes the opportunity to take the long way around towards Midway to make sure that the cyborg is on the other side of the Abyssal. She doesn't want to risk any friendly fire incidents, after all, especially with her anti-air rounds loaded.

It appears that Midway's focusing on her allies in this mission, too. That should make things easier. Haguro keeps her mouth shut as she takes aim at Midway, her turrets adjusting ever so slightly for the wind, the distance, and even the cruiser's lateral movement. Once she's confident enough in her targetting, she lets loose with a volley of shells, each one bursting apart once they come closer to Midway's predicted path. She approaches steadily as she approaches, apparently intending to get closer to the target herself as well!

Shigure has posed: Shigure sees the gun flashes. She can't see 17 at this distance, but she calls the attack. "She's engaging. All points, open fire!" Yamashiro and Kuma shift their turrets into position, as Yuudachi and Shigure herself surge forwards to close the gap. Eight shots come from the Battleship, spread across the formation around Midway, while Kuma launches a rapid staccato of six shells from her shoulder cannon, aiming to pepper the Princess directly with high explosive rounds.

It'll take time for the Destroyers to get into range though.

Orchid (6384) has posed: The logic doesn't track for Orchid. Most of the threats Midway faces could be avoided by simply submerging. While it is good that they have help on their side, Orchid isn't trusting the scenario. "Something about this whole thing stinks," she reports to Leyanne and Kotone. If this is a trap, then the best angle for it to come from... Orchid turns the focus of her scanners, and what maps are available, to figuring out where Midway might be headed TO. Does she have a base ahead? Or is there a fleet somewhere nearby? Someone has to think beyond the immediate battle.

Android 17 (6730) has posed: The ships moved to target Seventeen.

"Welp," He manages to get out before all of those shots fire at him.

There is an explosion, perhaps a touch earlier than expected, as the air is full of dark smoke that slowly starts to be blown away by the trade winds. However, in their place was a green forcefield. A barrier that surrounded Android 17, as he stares down with his hands extended against the force of the rounds fired at him. It doesn't stop everything, bleeding can be detected above his right eye, but he was hardly as damaged as something like that should have left the lithe man against several destroyers.

The barrier fades, and his hands are filled with energy. Electrical energy courses down his arms as he focuses it through his palms...and a barrage of lightining balls fly down, not going for the other destroyers, not going for other targets.

Midway was his target. These balls explode in a burst of electricity as they touch anything, including the water.

"Maybe your right in that case though. We're far passed the point of talking."

Leyanne Mace has posed:And battle is joined. Immediately Leyanne pushes the throttles forwards, and Leeroy kicks up a rooster-tail of water, lifting fully up into the plane as he surges up to speed, bouncing across the water. "Engage!" Leyanne orders.

Immediately, two Exocet missiles are spat from their rails, igniting moments later and shooting towards the Abyssals. No particular ship is locked; there's enough scatter off Midway's fleet as a whole that the missiles are bound to lock onto /something/ abyssal... unless shot down, of course. As soon as the missles are away, Leyanne hunkers down behind the raised front of the wheelhouse, pointing towards one of the Abyssal destroyers "That one! Open a hole!" She orders. "Steve! Are the K-guns and Hedgehog loaded? We'll need 'em if she submerges."

Torpedoes are launched, a spread across the destroyer they've targeted. In reference to Midway, it's at about her 7-o-clock.

Nova Terra (6381) has posed: It's not hard to see the sudden cannon fire, even from as far away as Nova currently is. According to her HUD, it's the same guy from that one time. Well, hopefully he's smart enough to not stick close to the fleet that everyone's about to start shooting at.

"Vikings, break and engage!"

The pilots of the two fighters reply affirmative to the order, their thrusters burning hotter as they rocket ahead of Nova's Vulture. Anticipating anti-air fire on their approach, they begin to weave and roll through the air as they close the distance. They continue like this until one reports, "Missile barrage locked." The other quickly follows suit, "Launching!"

The two fighters each unleash a barrage of missiles that streak through the air and rain down towards the Abyssal fleet, before exploding as their proximity sensors are triggered by the small ships.

After their assault, the Vikings pull up and rise into the air to try and get clear of any retaliation.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:So here they are the battle is underway and Kotone is on the Deck of the Leroy as the enemy open fires, she'll level her railgun and start taking shots t the destroyers the heavy weapon hopefully should have some effect if she's able to land a hit on any of the small abyssals. Shot after shot is fire, but it's never rapid, Kotone clearly does not have a rapid-fire weapon but what the gun makes up for in it's slower speed is just how hard it hits.

"Tell me about it Orchid I don't like it Orchid. Still, if it's a trap we have to spring it once way or another."

she'll keep laying down shots but can't shake that feeling something isn't right about this.

"Orchid give a shout if you get anything strange on your scanners."

Midway has posed: The smoke and debris clears-- and Seventeen is still very much an obstacle. Midway takes a step back, sweeping her upraised hand back as well. Electricity was not expected, and the woman's reaction to the jolt is to straighten, eyes shut, letting out a surprised noise. The destroyers around her scatter from the charge, as cannonfire bursts in the water around them. Something shrieks, and dingy gray seawater is tinged black with oil. There's a fire on the water where one of them had been.

More cannonfire from the 5th Fleet further scatters Midway's escort, while high explosive bombardment shells from Haguro explode against her in great pyrotechnic bursts. As she recovers from this, those missiles explode against and around her. The Princess is tossed, striking the water several times and coming to a stop on hands and knees.

Defiantly, she places a foot under herself, then rises. The thorned collar around her neck is broken, fangs falling loose. One entire side of it breaks away as she stands, hitting the water. Despite the oily black ichor splattered across her face, she tilts her head with an audible pop from her neck. The woman then leans down, diving her hands into the water. As she hauls them up, she drags up two unmistakable shapes: The corroded, heavily armored, gun-covered black shields of an Abyssal battleship.

Her hair also slips. By the time she's risen back to her full height, the elegant white mane drifts away on the tide, as a black-haired Ru-Class Battleship opens fire on Seventeen with a battery of identical size to the destroyers he'd just been shot at by. The larger guns on her shields elevate, then discharge their much heavier payloads at the distant Neo Osprey.

Midway has posed: With all the noise of the battle, previously useful sonar becomes much harder to interpret. Cannons, explosions, and the sounds of Abyssal destroyers darting about underwater add to the chaos. But then, quite suddenly, Orchid's sonar mechaniloids pick up something rising from the deep at a rapid rate. When it hits the surface, it hits hard, right in the middle of the Hikari formation. Right beneath the heavy cruiser Haguro.

As the geyser of seawater slumps back down into the ocean, she is there. A visage carved in alabaster and obsidian. Despite the earlier deception, there is no doubt to her countenance: This is Midway.

Effortlessly, she lifts Haguro by her rigging, hand wedged between the metal equipment and the girl wearing it, "So you've come so carelessly." Her free hand lifts, a tracking device nestled between thumb and forefinger. Without looking, she crushes it, "Knowing you come to your own destruction. This..." That hand is lifted, pressing against the cruiser's back, "..Is overconfidence." Metal buckles, creaking ominously.

And the gives. With a wrenching motion, Midway separates Haguro's body from her equipment. Just as the cruiser girl is discarded, Midway swings her weaponry around, catching her on the end of it and discharging all of the guns on impact.

Haguro has posed: A direct hit! Spurred on by that initial success, Haguro continues surging forward even as her turrets reload. She's not expecting Midway to be helpless in close combat, but given all of Haguro's recent training, she's actually feeling rather confident about her odds!

Granted, all those explosions are still rattling her even now, but being up close means they won't throw her aim off at the very least. She hunches forward and clenches her fists, ready to slam herself right into the... Ru-class? That's fine, too. <<"If they are planning something, then... Be prepared to fire on whatever em-">>

And then things go very wrong, very quickly. She only catches a glimpse of what's below her for a moment before she finds her feet firmly on liquid nothing, choking out a gasp as she tries to process what's just happened. "From below..?!"

Of course an Abyssal would come from below. Before she can swing her fist back down to unload another volley of shells into Midway's face, however, she can already feel herself being much lighter than before. Adjusting herself in midfall, she swings her leg around to try and catch Midway's face with a kick, but not before Midway unloads that series of guns into her midsection.

The armor isn't of much help at that range. At that quantity. The Cruiser's eyes widen in shock as she falls back into the water, feeling a distinct sinking feeling in her gut/what's left of her gut. She claws at the water, a last ditch attempt at grabbing even the Abyssal's rigging or leg, but quickly descends further into the water until all that's visible is metal and a dark patch in the water.

She didn't even know she could go into shock. That makes the sinking a little less terrifying, at least.

Orchid (6384) has posed: It was a trap. At least Orchid is validated that much. That she didn't see the trap in time? That's less flattering. She does her best to track Haguro's location on the sonar systems, directing several fish to follow down. They're good to two kilometers deep, but will that be enough? Of course, she's also directing the other sensor systems of the Leeroy, particularly the radar, and she focuses that system now on the abyssal princess, lighting Midway up with Radar.

Android 17 (6730) has posed: Shit...no this was too perfectly planned. She read his actions before he took them, and used it to cripple or kill one of the others. If he were over there...he'd would have been able to get to her...as it stood right now, Seventeen was surrounded by ships, and now facing a larger one. He could only bring up the shield again, this time smashed by the more focused guns. The barrier bent, but did not break. But his body more hurt by the assualt this time than before. Clothes torn and body covered in wounds. However, he was still mostly alright, besides some nasty looking cuts and bruises. His hands came to his sides...and this time a aura of light started to burst out from him. Channeling his internal power sources much like someone from his world might channel their inner ki. His eyes flashed, as he leans forward slightly.

He vanishes, appearing higher in the air as he releases another barrage of balls down into the sea, this time aiming to scatter them across the entire force. However as he falls, the main target, the one who had just hit him hard...

He lands on her ship, a devistating stomp to the deck as both hands come out.

"You know what arrogance is? Discounting one person. I said before, I'm not human...and let me show you just why I'm named /ANDROID/ 17!" This is followed by a surge of energy, and an amazingly focused burst of energy forward across the deck of the ship, aiming to cause as much damage. The only thing he can do right now is to make him a threat regonizable. Maybe they could correct their mistakes...and their means his too. This was as much his failure.

Leyanne Mace has posed:Leyanne shout "Brace!" before she wrenches the wheel hard to one side, spinning it to full lock while at the same time wrenching back one of the throttles to its full back position.

Leeroy creaks loudly under the stress but performs a sharp, carving turn, the mouse spinning the wheel back to neutral and hammering the throttle back to forwards. A few belches of flame and black smoke spit from one of his tailpipes in protest but the PT boat rises back to the plane as the engine catches again properly. As he does so, a mouse gives two more exocets are spat from their rails - aimed for the real Midway this time, brought to bear by Orchid's radar. The Bofors gun opens up too - using Nova Terra's radar for targeting the 3P airburst rounds.

"Ko! Do yousee the spot? Hit it!" She looks over the side of the flying bridge. "LOAD THOSE TUBES!" Leyanne shouts; all four of Leeroy's torpedo tubes are empty and the reload process has only just begun... a thought occurs "And make ready for evasive maneuvers... we'll probably attract a lot of return fire."

"Affirmative, keep firing." Reina calls back, clasping her hands in anticipation. Her view through the aft is of that of destroyers being hit by the fire of her weapons and the allies assisting her in this battle. It seems like a typical battle, until things suddenly change.

Reina can see it, but she can't say anything. Eventually, she shakes her head and yells out, "EVASIVE MANEUVERS! NOW!"

"Aye aye," The navigational operative calls out as he attempts to shift the Neo Osprey into a sharp turn in an evasive move. Once they're sure they've evaded properly, Reina regains her composure. She sees the spot in question and she narrows her eyes. "There it is!" She sits back down and calls out, "Aim for that spot! Now!"

"Fire torpedoes!" Reina calls out, and there's the sound of torpedoes being launched from the Neo Osprey. "Let's see you damn THESE torpedoes!"

Shigure has posed: Yamashiro calls a reload after her first salvo. As the turrets clank and ring with the new shells she sees Midway emerge from the depths and cut Haguro in half, almost literally. "HAGURO!" she growls, turning and breaking formation. Her eyes start to glow faintly, the irises seeming to spin and rotate as she calculates the vectors. "YOU'RE IN THE WAY!" she bellows, firing her turrets behind her to launch herself at Midway. "GET LOST!" She comes barreling in on her recoil, aiming to slam a fist into Midway's face with all the weight and speed of a Battleship at flank bell.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:It was a trap, Midway makes her move, then Harguo gets wrecked very hard here, her rigging ripped from her leaving her unarmed at best. Damn, this was bad a,d now things get worse faster still there's some ideas she hangs on as Leyanne moves the ship about hard, she may dig her feet into the deck a bit to keep her balance as she does so. Then comes Nova with a target location and Kotone will take the feed and start lining up the rail gun, she confident enough.

"I see it."

She will take a moment to lock up her body so it can't twitch and then pulls the trigger sending a shot, followed by two more at a steady rate of fire, only moving to adjust if she needs to. She also knows though Midway may be monstrously tough and this would be a long fight.

Nova is too far away to do any real good as she sees Midway rise up to attack one of the shipgirls. All she can do is watch as the poor girl is stripped of her armor and left to sink into the water. Nova frowns as she radios, "Covering fire! We need to keep her occupied while that one is recovered."

Nova reaches down to retrieve her rifle attached to her Vulture bike. She rests it against the top of the bike as the request for targeting support comes through. Nova quickly presses some buttons on the scope before aiming it in Midway's direction. Pulling the trigger, Nova sends a beam of light streaking out across the large distance to hit Midway. But it's far from strong enough to do any damage... But it does make triangulating her position much, much easier. Something which Nova transmits to any ally who wants to make use of it. And to her own air support, "Vikings, suppresing fire!"

The two Vikings loop over in the air, before diving down towards the ocean's surface once more. Just before reaching it they quickly pull up, hovering thrusters kicking in to help reduce their speed. Their frames then begin to transform, legs folding down out of the bottom, thrusters on them igniting to assist in holding their altitude. The wings fold in, two large rotary cannons sliding out. Their main engines rotate down and soon enough they are hovering just above the water, kicking up a spray.

The Viking pilots tune their targetting system's to Nova's laser targeting and then pull the trigger. Streams of bullets are unleashed from the four gatling guns, streaking through the air towards Midway.

Midway has posed: As the cruiser sinks, Midway's unblinking, glowing crimson eyes are the last thing she sees of the surface.

The Princess turns casually. Water parts behind her as her spherical parasite emerges behind her, its toothy maw yawning wide. The damaged Shipgirl equipment is discarded into that open mouth, and the parasite chomps down. As the cruiser equipment disappears, Midway's rigging opens its mouth again. The shell ruptures, cracking in places as twin gun turrets emerge from its sides and top, stark and black against the white shell.

Airburst rounds explode around and against her. A railgun slug punches through her equipment, exploding out the other side in a spray of black ichor and metal shards. The Princess turns to face the fleet amassed against her. It's Yamashiro who closes the fastest, and she raises a hand to beckon the charging battleship. That hand shifts, and intercepts the punch directed at her face with a great, cacophanous sound of two incredibly massive metal objects slamming together. The impact pushes her back, her arm bent at an unnatural angle. Crimson cracks shoot through her forearm, but the Princess does not falter. She simply stares at Yamashiro's face with those wide, fury-filled crimson eyes of hers.

Chaingun fire starts hammering her from behind, courtesy of the Vikings. Midway's turrets swing around, opening fire on the airborne transforming fighters. This is intended only to buy an opening, though, as the maw of her parasite opens. Abyssal aircraft start pouring out in a plume above her, dispersing into attack wings of dive bombers that descend upon the Leeroy and the Neo Osprey.

"In the way of what?" Midway intones to Yamashiro, "That one is already gone." She pushes in, asserting her strength on the battleship, "You are wasting. Your. Time. Make yourself useful."

Her feet shift, and rather than dig into Yamashiro or the like, Midway places her leg behind the battleship's and hurls her sideways. Right into the path of the torpedoes fired by Neo Osprey.

Midway has posed: Seventeen meanwhile is contending with an elite Ru-Class. The pale woman brings her shield-batteries up defensively when the android's body erupts with gathered energy, her own guns in the process of reloading. This proves to be a good choice, when he scatters munitions around himself. The destroyers are scattered, two of them even destroyed in plumes of fire and debris. Ru shields her face with one battery, her body with the other, which gives the android something convenient to land on.

The beam burns right through her shield at this close range, striking the side of her face. Letting out a silent scream, she hauls her shield up to dislodge him. The side of her face is gone-- an empty void with a single crimson point where her eye should be, cracks shooting through her skin. She skates backwards, trailing smoke-- until a flame erupts from the gaping wound in her face. The pained grimace on her lips twists into a fanged sneer as Ru draws her shields up. This time, it's not just her secondary guns but the larger main battery that opens fire on Android Seventeen.

Shigure has posed: Yamashiro didn't have much of a plan. As she deadlocks with the Princess, her turrets turn and clank as they reload, but the swivel is too slow. She's overbalanced, and tossed aside, landing in an awkward crouch... just before those torpedos strike and engulf her in a plume of water.

Shigure sees this, her blue eyes going wide as shock runs through her. "... Y-yamashi... ro..." Her irises shrink to pinpricks, and a haze of absolute terror crosses her face. "N-No... No, not again... I can't lose her again..." Turning, the Destroyers eyes begin to leak, salty tears streaking down her face as she blindly charges towards where Yamashiro was, the Battleship's fate shrouded in a misty bank of artificial fog and smoke.

Yuudachi tchs, turning to chase after her sister, but aiming to get all up in Midway's business, using speed to circle around the Princess, peppering her with 12.7cm cannonfire. "How about you, like, pick on someone your own size!" she goads.

Reina Kinney has posed:"Ma'am, there are incoming fighters from above!" The navigational operative calls out.

"Dammit!" Reina calls out, which is compounded by the ship taking damage from one of the bombers successfully hitting the craft. "How many are there?"

"Too many!" The navigational operative calls back.

"Hell with it!" Reina yells as she stands up quickly. "Ready cannons and take out those Falzing bombers!" She clenches her fists. "Fire NOW!"

"Aye aye, ma'am!" The weapons operative replies as he fires the cannons at the bombers.

"Navigations, evasion now!" Reina yells.

"Yes, ma'am!" The navigational operative replies, trying to get the Neo Osprey out of danger.

Of course, he realizes exchanging blasts with the boat is probably not going to be a good idea going forward...no instead, he takes a chance.

He rushes TOWARDS the Ru-Class. As he rushes forward, she fires, and that shield washes over him again, diverting a large chunk of his force into that. The powerful attack meets powerful defense...there is an explosion. From it, Android 17 charges, his right hand bloodied, and more of his clothing shreaded by the blast...but he's still charging.

His left hand moves quickly, aiming to try and strike at the ship, quickily and ruthlessly, he comes in, his hands aiming to make cutting motions at the cannons, trying to tear and strike at whatever he can.

Until he vanishes...

He aims to appear right below her, aiming to kick her up into the sky...

Only to appear above her, and take both hands down into a hammer blow, aiming to send her back down with as much force (if not more because THANKS graivty) as the kick did.

Both hands come down, as energy charges...and this time streaks of light fire out, each one aiming to move in odd patterns, but streak towards the (hopefully) stunned girl. "I'm not done yet," he pants out, "Though I do hate being right."

Nova Terra (6381) has posed: The Vikings are forced to strafe to the side as the cannon fire is launched their way. One of them catches a glancing shot, one of its gatling cannons blasting apart from the shell. This gives Midway the opening she needs to launch her own aircraft into the air. Nova blinks at the sight of the unholy planes. That's not creepy at all... Still, they need to be dealt with! She redirects her Vikings to engage them, before focusing her own efforts on Midway herself.

Nova throws her Vulture bik into a skid before starting to blast above the surface of the water at an angle to Midway. She releases her grip on the bike's controls as she twists to aim her Canister Rifle at the Abyssal Princess. Nova sights in on those new gun turrets and starts firing, trying to penetrate their armour and blow them to pieces.

Meanwhile, the Viking fighters quickly transform back into flying mode, boosting up into the air once more. They quickly move to intercept the monster aircraft, their pilots thankful they have proximity missiles and lots of them. Otherwise trying to dogfight the rather smaller craft would be troublesome! The Vikings unleash their missile barrages against the creepy planes, trying to reduce the pressure on on the Neo Osprey.

Leyanne Mace has posed:Leyanne ducks back down behind the wheelhouse to protect herself from the incoming dive-bombers, the Bofors gun pivoting up to meet them with fire, along with all the other secondaries. Leyanne wrenches the wheel erratically from side to side, never once remaining on a stable, straight path for more than a few seconds. Little Leeroy is hell to target from the air... but there are enough bombers that he begins to take hits, a few punching through the deck and causing his crew to dive for cover.

He's engulfed in smoke clouds several times along his path, smoke dischargers wreathing him in thick white for a few seconds when the firepower gets too much.

Orchid (6384) has posed: So it seems that Midway can absorb the equipment she eats. Something Orchid might wish she could do, but it's not a high priority. Orchid drones that are listening to the battle. There's a lot of noise to try and make sense of, but she can tell that Yamashiro is still on the surface, but that the Battleship's engines are silent. Orchid shifts the radar from the surface to the incoming bombers, and boosting the signals. The idea is to burn out the abyssal airforce's sensors, leaving them blind in the air.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:They need to get out of here, and Androids 17 is putting himself at serious risk to buy them time. She's not going to forget that even if her first meeting was a bit rocky from her point of view. She's also thankful for Nova's people giving air support there may be many people she owes drinks later if they live through this. For the moment though she'll be laying down fire as Leyanne does her thing it does not matter if she hits Midway, just enough to keep her and any of her fleet off the Leeroy, she trusts in Leyanne's ability to get them out of there and Orchid to handle some of the recovery ops.

Midway has posed: With Yamashiro...occupied, Midway's eyes and then head turn towards Yuudachi. Small calibre shells burst against her body and equipment, leaving black marks and causing small fires, but she seems nonplussed by it. She seems more drawn by the destroyer's words, and has a simple response: "Like you?"

Her twin gun turrets are already swinging around, and she extends a hand with her fingers curled upwards. One of the turrets explodes suddenly, her eyes swinging rapidly towards Nova and her hovercycle. A squadron of planes breaks off from the swirling mass of Abyssal aircraft above her, diving on the vulture. The lead group consists of fighters, strafing the hovercycle with machine gun fire. Right behind them is a trio of dive bombers, following the strafing run with more explosive ordnance.

More fighters break off. Proximity rockets are a big problem for massed small planes, and the response is to attack the vikings directly from multiple directions, strafing the Terran fighters with dives and then juking away using the accumulated energy.

The attempt to burn out the sensors of Abyssal planes doesn't work. These are daytime fighters from an age from before every airplane had avionics and onboard radar, after all. It's Leeroy's smoke that wards them off after a few attack runs, as they're no longer able to verify the target and simply begin circling. They're drawn to Kotone's railgun fire, but keep their distance.

With her aircraft in full harassment mode, Midway returns her attention to Yuudachi, turning the face the destroyer straight on. A railgun slug punches through her parasite again, spraying oil and metal shards across the sea.

"You have already sacrificed one," Her eyes narrow, glowing ominously in the shadow cast by her bangs, "Another hangs by a thread." Her remaining guns complete their traversal, "How many more will you sacrifice to me, I wonder?"

Midway's remaining six cannons open fire.

Midway has posed: Across the waves, Ru-Class Elite is not equipped to deal with someone like Seventeen. She's nowhere near fast enough, even if she has the firepower. The sluggish reloads on her cannons and the slow traversal rates of her guns are working against her, here. He gets right up in her face while she's reloading those guns. He gets a brief glimpse of her frustrated frown before he knocks the battleship girl off her feet.

She hits the water as if it were solid ground, after several seconds of airtime, letting out a gasp. One of her shields spins out of her grasp, tumbling away and promptly sinking. She brings up her remaining, damaged shield battery to defend herself when she's blasted with energy.

Once the water settles from the explosion, the Ru-Class is gone, though whether she was annihilated, sunk, or escaped by submerging is unclear. Given the damage she'd been taking, she's not likely to come back for another round, though.

Android 17 (6730) has posed:Seventeen looks down...well, he'll have to keep better track of his opponets in the future...these ships were awfully specialized, and Naval warfare isn't something he cares about...on his world, he could probably level the world's navy in a few concentraited sweeps. Not that he would, their big scary guns help them keep order and safety. Also it'd hurt the ocean.

The target is gone, he doesn't count on destroyed or sunk without a body. He turns towards Midway...who is now taunting them.

Of course, she speaks for him...and there is a smirk to his face. As she fires, he flies in at full speed, flipping midair...and aiming to streak in the last few feet with a kick, aiming to send his foot right into the side of her head.

"Android 17, dear. I don't run out of stamina. I can do this all day." he says, again. Of course, he was bluffing to keep hope in his allies hearts. They needed to leave, and he was still very much vulnerable to physical damage.

"However, lady, sink me if you can. You'll find I'm not so easy to intimidate or cow with violence." he returns...he just needs a bit more...if they get out of range, and he can keep her here...then going after them would be too dangerous.

Of course he needs to buy the time and survive. That last part might be harder.

Shigure has posed: Shigure skids to a stop on her knees, slamming hard into Yamashiro's side as the Battleship, badly wounded and leaking oil, her rigging in shambles, comes out of the mist. "Yamashiro... Yamashiro!" the destroyer cries, arms wrapping around the larger woman, as a rooster tail begins to rise from her heels, the Destroyer desperately trying to pull the Battleship out of the area.

Yuudachi grins wickedly, her eyes gleaming with a madness all their own. "Yeah, got a problem with that, bitchtits?" she says, juking wildly to throw off the aim of those cannons. Wait, that pattern of movement. Where are her torpedo launchers pointing!?

Kuma comes up beside Yamashiro on the opposite side to Shigure, scooping under the shrine-maiden Battleship, pushing her own engines to the redlines and starting to cart the wounded battleship away. "Yuudachi, kuma!" The blonde twirls away, sticking her tongue out at Midway before settling into formation and adding her own engine power to the towing efforts.

Leyanne Mace has posed:Leeroy runs blocker for the towing fleet; he curves around and deploys a line of smoke to block Midway's line of sight on the flotilla as they tow the wounded battleship out of the fleet.

As the mice hear the torpedoes pass under their keel Leyanne grins, wrenching the wheel around and adding four more 'presents' to the parting shot. As the fleet begins to move, Leeroy keeps his position, laying more smoke to try and protect them.

Nova Terra (6381) has posed: The Vikings are successful in exploding some of the Abyssal fighters. In return they find themselves under fire from those that survived. Talk about ungrateful. The Terran fighters lighten up on their barrage, beginning to twist and turn through the air as they try to avoid the enemy planes. But being smaller, said enemy has a considerable agility advantage over the Vikings. Enemy shots begin to rip up their armour, punching through wings. One fighter takes a direct hit to one of its engines, the large thruter bursting into flames and trailing smoke before emergency systems cut off the fuel feed and the flames die out.

Through her radio, Nova can hear the Viking pilots reporting on the attacking craft and their rising damage levels. Finally Nova has to admit that the Abyssals have the overwhelming advantage at this point, ordering, "Understood Vikings, pull back and RTB."

The two fighters angle up and push their throttles hard, using their impressive thrust to quickly rise into the air as they head for the cloud cover to shake off the smaller planes.

Nova herself also finds she's been targetting by those monstrous aircraft. The strafing gunfire isn't too much of a problem, the Vulture bike fast and agile under Nova's control. She's able to swerve and slide around the strafing runs. Unfortunately the explosive blasts of the dive bombers proves harder to avoid. Nova skirts around the edges of several explosions, before one bomber finally gets in a luck shot, its bomb streaking down right towards the bike.

Nova vanishes in the resulting explosion, only to come streaking out of the blast a few moments later. Her bike and suit alike are covered in scorch marks, part of the bike's armour blasted apart. Her hair is also a little singed after what could have been a rather painful explosive end to the mission, if not for a last minute application of telekinesis to alter the bomb's trajectory at the last moment.

But it's clear to Nova that this mission has turned bad, the others already switching into full blown retreat. Nova isn't far behind them as she turns her hoverbike to start skimming away from the battlefield and Midway. Her rifle is aimed behind her as she unloads numerous rounds towards the Abyssal fighters, trying to ward them off as she retreats.

Orchid (6384) has posed: Orchid is still on the sensors, still making sure they know where the abyssal aircraft are. She's also quietly swearing to herself. A number of her drones will be abandoned, but most of the Mini-Osprey birds will be rejoining her.

"Fire a few more torpedoes!" Reina barks at the weapons operative before looking to the navigational operative again. "Get us out of here double time! We're done here!"

After the torpedoes fire to give final support, there is a response of, "Right away, ma'am!" As the navigational operative calls out as he starts steering the boat quickly to get out of the area fast. Once it's facing the right direction, the engines are put to full power. "We're leaving now!"

"Don't look back either!" Reina calls out before slumping into her seat and sighing. "We did all we could, now we await the results..."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:They are not out of the woods yet, and they have to keep going a bit longer there's more of the enemy still and she's just trying to keep them at bay. There's also a sense of horror in the back of her mind? What if she's captured and Midway wants to get some moden E-war upgrades she might get hacked up for parts. She keeps shooting trying to keep the enemy back.

"Just keep going!"

Midway has posed: Seventeen's foot slams into the side of Midway's face. It's like hitting steel, though the impact does push her across the sea's surface. The sound, too, like striking metal against metal that rings across the waves. Immediately, she snaps a hand up, snatching the android's ankle and snapping him up, then down into the water. Releasing him, she turns just enough to face him.

"So," the Princess states, "You intend to buy their escape with your life?" Her attention turns to the destroyer and cruiser struggling to pull Yamashiro to safety, a hand raising, "Even if you fight me, can you also fight all of my aircraft?" Her fingers close, forming a cage around the fleeing shipgirls, through her perspective, "They are already mine."

Hand lowering, she returns her attention to Seventeen. Her eyes glowing with restrained fury, she regards the android. Railgun slugs from Kotone continue to pelt her, occasionally penetrating her parasite as they had been before.

But she ignores it all. Even the explosions of Yuudachi's torpedoes blasting against her, splattering oily ichor and metal shards across the water around her. The mounting damage is clear, and yet, the Princess merely continues to evaluate the android who assaulted her so brazenly. A hand raises, fingers stretched with several metallic pops. As she curls those fingers into fists, there's several more popping sounds.

"My intention is not intimidation," she states simply, "I look forward to dismantling your mechanical systems." Stepping forward, she draws her hand down and to one side-- and her aircraft cease their harassment of the retreating forces, "Your intention is to buy time for their retreat. I will humor it if you can adequately entertain me."

Android 17 (6730) has posed: Seventeen's leg is caught, grabbed and then SLAMMED down. That hurt more than it might have looked, but his leg kicked, aiming to get loose before spining back into a fighting stance. The Android and the Princess stare each other down. She makes a declaration of victory...but to it, there was only the smirking look of the Android. He knows his situation is bad, but he also isn't about to give up without a fight. Once more she just talks, but his mind was already working steps ahead.

"Well, you assume alot. Such as that you're going to kill me. However, how long do you think your planes can track them? They'll be within range of AA fire within a few minutes by my estimates. You assume they're the only boats out here, and that I wasn't already thinking ahead." he says, calmly. Is he bluffing? Or did he have allies that she wasn't counting on? Who can say, but he doesn't blink.

"But if you want entertainment, I suggest you take me seriously than that," He says, perhaps full of false bravado...but at the same time...

"Besides. Sacrificing yourself for others? I like how human that sounds."

His face is a calm smile, willing to pay this price. He charges, but this time he uses that faster than sight movement to come at her from a different direction, aiming to come after her from the aft, aiming to swing a kick at one of those guns, before his left hand comes up, aiming a ball of lightning charged energy towards the barrel of the other.

He needs those planes closer...

Midway has posed: "Hm hm hm hm~..." Midway spreads her hands to either side. Her aircraft break off their pursuit and begin swirling around the sky above her, covering a wide area, "You have a habit of making assumptions. You have made several since I first began observing you. And you make more now. It is quite amusing."

Seventeen's kick crushes one of Midway's remaining gun turrets. His electrical attack destroys the turrets on another. But Midway doesn't recoil. She doesn't even attempt to defend herself. She lurches forward at such close quarters.

She reaches out with one hand, intent on sinking her steel talons into the android's chest and forcing him down. Her free hand draws back, fingers curled into cruel talons, the metal bracing and nails gleaming in the dim, overcast light.

"For example, you assume I intend to /kill/ you."

Android 17 (6730) has posed: The two trade blow after blow...but it's evident that Seventeen isn't winning this fight solo. Not after he took the damage holding off the other fleet. Still...it is good to see he is giving as good as he is taking. Even as she lords over him, assuming that he is assuming that he is assuming assumptions! Confused yet? Good!

Her hands grab at him, and his fist comes in. Claws dig into his body, but his body wasn't just for show. Blood drips over those fingers, but as she tries to grab him, his face turns in pain, but grabs the claw, and drops his hand in a choping motion, aiming to cause enough force to either drive it off, or break free...lower, but not defeated, Seventeen grins in that way someone on his last legs could.

"You have a habbit of thinking you've won, but..." he says, and then...

Straight up. He would appear straight up, his speed giving him enough to do that...with the sun overhead...

"Allow me to...enlighten you." he says, even as planes would inevitably charge him to knock him down...

There is a flash of light.

"SOLAR FLARE!" he booms, of course it wasn't HIS move...he'll have to thank Tien later, assuming he lives. He blasts off in a direction, not looking which way he was going...just towards land. His hand desprately grabbing at his side, trying to keep the blood from gushing out.

Midway has posed: Recoiling from her own attacks, Midway draws her hand up. The fingers curl again, the metal bracing on the backs of her fingers creaking with every motion she makes. The blood present is observed, before her eyes return to her opponent. From his high angle, Seventeen can see behind the brace of spikes Midway wears around her neck-- she has an actual, human face behind that mass of spines.

She lets out a startled sound when the flash goes off, one hand reaching to her face to shield her eyes. The other sweeps out, and her aircraft scatter away from the lightshow. The startled noise bleeds into a growl, which becomes a roar of fury when she brings her hand down. Her vision swims with spots, blinded, and so she closes those eyes.

Radar tells the story.

Midway's posture relaxes, her back straightening. With eyes closed, she turns her head towards Seventeen's retreat, then the other way towards the distant retreating fleet. Her parasite's mouth opens, discharging a plume of black smoke and the mangled, corroded remains of Haguro's gun rigging. It rolls back, detaching from her and disappearing into the sea.

Moments later, Midway sinks down as well, leaving only patches of oil, flames and wreckage as evidence of the encounter.